Oven appliances generally include a cabinet that defines a cooking chamber for receiving food items for cooking. In certain oven appliances, the cabinet includes a top panel, a bottom panel and an additional panel that are mounted to each other to from the cooking chamber. In such oven appliances, the additional panel is bent into a c-shape to form sidewalls and a back wall of the cooking chamber.
Coatings, such as an enamel coating, can be applied to panels that form the cooking chamber. To avoid damaging the enamel coating, the additional panel is preferably bent into shape and mounted to the top and bottom panels prior to applying the enamel coating to such panels. However, applying enamel coating to the assembled panels can be difficult. For example, applying enamel evenly can be difficult when the panels are assembled. Further, the top panel generally does not require enamel coating. However, avoiding application of enamel coating to the top panel when the panels are assembled can be difficult.
Such panel assemblies also have additional drawbacks. For example, utilizing such panel assemblies across multiple oven appliance designs can be difficult, and such panel assemblies often require cover plates to hide unutilized features. Such cover plates can be cosmetically unappealing. The assembled panels can also be difficult to handle due to their bulk, and the handling difficulty can increase manufacturing time and/or cost. In addition, bending the additional panel to form the sidewalls and the back wall of the cooking chamber can cause the cooking chamber to have rounded corners, and cooking chambers with rounded corners can appear smaller to consumers relative to cooking chambers with square corners. Further, when the additional panel is mounted to the bottom panel, liquid can wick upwardly between the additional panel and the bottom panel and escape the cooking chamber during operating of the oven appliance, and the liquid can negatively affect operation of the oven appliance.
Accordingly, an oven appliance with features for addressing the drawbacks discussed above would be useful. In particular, an oven appliance with features for permitting application of coatings to panels of the oven appliance prior to assembling the panels would be useful.